Tag: airbnb host

Posted on by — Leave a comment

3 Thing I Am Doing In My Short Term Rentals To Generate Revenue

It is a very tough time in the economy we are living in today. There are 3 things I am doing in my short term rentals to generate revenue. They are outlined below with each of my properties. These are by no means the only things hosts can be doing during these tough times, but I have found them to be successful for me.

Here is an update so you can see actual numbers from my account as of a few days ago:

Airbnb Earnings April

That is right, last month was impacted from close to $10k in revenue to just under $6k. To read more about last months impact, read this article where I talk about the impact Disney closing and the pandemic has had on Short Term Rentals in Orlando.

That is not a typo. My income for this month through Airbnb is $20.

What I Am Doing To Generate Income

Here is what I have done already to begin generating income from my properties.

Ol’ Faithful: I am currently going through arguments with my HOA to allow me to rent out the home. The HOA sent an email to all homeowners stating they would not be allowing any new guests for the foreseeable future. More updates to come.

Turquoise: I had a guest staying at my place for 14 days. He was scheduled to checkout this morning. Two days ago, I reached out to him and let him know if he wanted to extend his stay, I would be able to accommodate. He asked to extend his stay for 30 nights and I gave him an incredible price of $950 to do so. This will pay my mortgage for the month so I will only have to eat the utilities.

Triplex 1/1 Airbnb: For my triplex, I had guests check in 6 nights ago. They were originally staying for 11 nights and scheduled to checkout next week. When they had first arrived, I spoke with them a little to get a sense of what they were doing in Orlando. They mentioned they were between apartments and weren’t able to find anything just yet. I reached out to them this morning letting them know they were welcome to stay for more time if they wished to. They immediately jumped on the idea and booked my calendar out till the 26th of this month! Another $450 in revenue for the room! On the 27th, I have a guest checking in for 30 nights. He was actually a guest who stayed at my place a few weeks ago, and we agreed to $850 for a one month booking. At the time of speaking with him, I was more than happy to allow him to stay for a full month. A lot of things were still uncertain then, and I am glad I got him locked in for all of May.

Final Results

All in all, I have been able to take a $20 revenue month and I have turned it into $1,750. I am still working to get someone into Turquoise for the month to add an additional $1,600 to the revenue for the month. The goal this first month is to get the mortgages paid through people renting. By the middle of this month, I will re-evaluate what to do with Turquoise and Ol’ Faithful.

Key Takeaways:

  • When things change, always figure out what the right pivot is. For me, pivoting to 30 day rentals is perfect. I know the STR game will come back to Orlando in a matter of time. For now, pivoting to 30-60 day rentals will allow me to continue rocking and rolling. 
  • I have said it once and I will say it again. Focus on the things you control. I have 0 control of my HOA at Ol’ Faithful being a little ridiculous to not allow new guests in. I am continuing to fight them, but their decision is completely out of my control. 
  • Don’t forget to utilize asking your guests who are currently staying with you. If it weren’t for me making connections with them and keeping communication channels open, I wouldn’t have any of my places booked right now. 
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Cops Called To My Airbnb Property!!!

What a wild last guest I had at Ol’ Faithful! The cops were called to my Airbnb property and I would have never expected something like this to happen. Having the cops called to my Airbnb property was a great learning experience for me on how to handle the situation. The next time this happens, as I am sure it will happen again at some point, I will take the things I learned from this experience and I will become even better in how I handle it.
 
I can now say I have had to deal with the cops being at one of my properties. All in all, I am glad my property wasn’t completely damaged and the guest wasn’t harmed (at least from what she is telling me).
 
For those of you who weren’t checking my stories, here is what happened:
  • I had a guest who continued extending her stay, which I was fine with. I didn’t think anything was too off.
  • Two days before she checked out, she called me at 12:30 am. I was asleep and didn’t answer the call, but called back in the morning. No answer from the guest. I was a little confused. She finally called back and just wanted to let me know that the mirror in the master fell because of something and that she would pay for a replacement. Ok, cool no worries.
  • An hour later she calls from her Apple Watch telling me I need to call the cops. Someone slashed her tires and then her ex boyfriend found out where she was and forced his way in my home. Yeah…this is where it starts getting crazy.
  • I tell her to go to the front desk at the clubhouse and call the cops. First, I didn’t know what to do because I had never experienced this before; and, I am not there so I have no idea what is actually going on.
  • She goes to the front to call the cops. I try calling her back shortly thereafter and get no response.
  • I then call the front desk to see if they knew what was going on. The lady mentioned to me that the cops arrived at my place and they seem to be handling the situation.
  • I continue to try to get a hold of the guest with no luck.
  • An hour later, I call the front desk back. The lady at the front desk let’s me know the cops left and everything seemed to be quiet and good now.
Okay, that is all well and good, but what happened?
 
Finally Getting A Hold Of The Guest
I finally got a hold of the guest after two hours. She told me her ex had slashed her tires and then forced his was in and tried hitting her and that is when she ran outside.
 
I immediately stopped her and said, “There are only two things I care about. First, were you physically harmed in any way and are you okay? Second, is the inside of my home damaged at all?”
 
She told me she was okay and when asked if she wanted to press charges against her ex that she didn’t want to. She mentioned everything inside was fine.
 
Time To ACtually See What Happened
That night she calls me back. I am just thinking, oh here we go again.
 
The guest tells me she is leaving and apologized for everything that happened. After she left, I immediately deleted her access code from the door. I didn’t want to have to deal with someone getting back in. I confirmed the door locked and felt somewhat good about the current situation.
 
The next morning, I decided to go to the property to check out how things were.
 
Here are a few pictures of how the property was:
 
 
Here were the main things that happened:
  1. There was excess trash everywhere in the home. You could definitely tell she just bounced and didn’t want to clean anything up.
  2. The sliding glass door leading to the pool wouldn’t shut all the way. I was able to open the door and the realized this was due to the thing on the wall being bent. I reached out to my handyman and he said that is what happens when someone is trying to break in and open the door. So this lead me to assume her ex definitely did try to get in the back door and luckily she had it locked. My handyman is going out there today to fix this. I am assuming it will cost around $80 to fix.
  3. Towels were left all over the home. Beds weren’t destroyed, but it was a mess. I knew I was going to get charged extra by my cleaners, which was fine by me. I would charge back to the guest.
Key Takeaways:
  • It is not if something is going to happen, but when. This is the same whether you are running a short term rental or long term. Long term, you just won’t know unless you do regular inspections of the property.
  • Don’t let something like this get to you. I controlled the situation to the best of my ability and understanding of how to control it.
  • I charged the guest $180 for the extra cleaning, breaking a mirror in the master and my handyman fixing the door. She immediately paid and didn’t ask questions. She apologized again and I wished her the best and that she stayed safe.

 

Don’t forget @TheYoungRetireeBy33’s 3 Core Principles:

1 – Your money should make money for you⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
2 – Start early to realize the power of compound interest⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
3 – Eliminate your largest expense by house hacking

Posted on by — Leave a comment

What Airbnb Is Doing For Hosts – 4 Actions Airbnb Is Taking To Support Hosts

This evening, the CEO of Airbnb had a live meeting to discuss the 4 actions airbnb is taking to support hosts. There has been a lot of backlash from hosts who are in a very rough spot since the pandemic, and many hosts are going to struggle to pay their mortgage or rent.

With that, the Airbnb CEO finally decided to step up and talk to hosts. For many like myself, it was about time to hear something from Airbnb. The only thing hosts like myself have heard was that all guests who booked would be receiving a 100% refund for the extenuating circumstances policy. I am 100% for people’s safety, and don’t want people traveling if it isn’t the right thing for them, but it has been tough for everyone.

No matter if you were in short term or long term rentals, it has been a tough time.

Here are the four things the Airbnb CEO has pledged to do

Airbnb CEO Message

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Here are the four actions the CEO promised they would do. Some of the more granular details are yet to be seen, so how everything will work is still up in the air. ⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
First, Airbnb will payout hosts $250,000,000 based off 25% of the cancelation policy the host had in place for any bookings that canceled due to COVID-19 made prior to 3/14. This means, if your cancelation policy states you provide a 50% refund, then that means you would ultimately be paid out 12.5% of what you were expecting to payout. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Second, they will offer a $10M superhose relief fund. This is by far the most vague of any of the things they are taking action on. How they will be determining who will receive money and how much was not discussed at all. I am assuming more information will come out at some point in the near future. ⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Third, they will be reaching out to people who have recently stayed at Airbnb’s and ask them if they would like to donate anything to their hosts. I think this is a nice gesture, but not really something many people can afford forking out money for at this point. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Lastly, they said all Airbnb owners will qualify for the small business loans from the stimulus package. Not 100% sure how this would work and who all it would benefit, so need to do more research on this one.

There are still many unknowns, but it was nice to at least hear something from the CEO of Airbnb. Only time will tell to see what actually happens and how much relief hosts will be getting.

Key Takeaways:

  • Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. There are hundreds of thousands of Airbnb hosts that will go under due to the world and environment we live in today. 
  • Don’t ever expect a handout from the government. In all my numbers, I never expect the government to give me anything. No matter what situation I am in. 
  • Keep your head and up and remember you can only control what you can control! There is no reason to get worked up on things that you have 0 control over.